SKOA & Erasmus+
46 Schools, 1 Island, 1 Mission
SKOA (Stichting Katholiek Onderwijs Aruba) is a Catholic school board foundation in Aruba. We manage 46 schools across the island: primary, secondary (MAVO), and special education. Together, that’s roughly 8000+ students and 700 staff members.
Aruba is a small Caribbean island with a population of around 110,000 people. It’s part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and one of the EU’s Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). Our schools teach in a multicultural and multilingual context: our students grow up with Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish, and English all around them.
We’re a community where education is shaped by what happens locally, but the challenges we face are global: how do we prepare students for a changing world when resources on a small island are limited?
Why Erasmus+?
SKOA has been an accredited Erasmus+ KA1 mobility consortium coordinator since 2023. We coordinate Erasmus+ across our entire network of 46 schools as a central strategy for improving education on Aruba.
Erasmus+ isn’t a nice extra for us. It’s one of the main ways we bring in new knowledge, build our teachers’ skills, and connect our schools to what’s happening in education elsewhere. It’s a structural part of how we develop as a school system.
What we focus on
Our Erasmus+ work is built around five priorities:
1. Language & Inclusion
2. Staff Development
3. Digital Education
4. Resilient Students
5. Digitalizing Internationalization
What’s happened so far
Since our accreditation, 248+ people have participated in Erasmus+ mobilities, including teachers, school leaders, support staff, and students:
Grant 2023: 100 participants
Grant 2024: 101 participants, including 34 students
Grant 2025: 47 participants so far, including 37 students 28 of our 46 schools have been actively involved. Here are some examples of what came out of those mobilities:
The SKOA EduWeek
SKOA EduWeek is a dedicated week of professional development where the entire teaching community comes together to learn with and from one another through workshops, courses, and shared experiences. As part of this collaborative environment, teachers who participate in Erasmus+ mobilities return and contribute to dissemination by leading their own workshops, sharing the knowledge and practices they gained abroad. In doing so, the benefits of the Erasmus+ project extend beyond the individual participants, significantly increasing its overall impact across the wider teaching community.
A STEAM lab, built from a job shadowing
Teachers from Felipe B. Tromp went to Turkey for one of our first job shadowing projects. When they came back, they set up a STEAM lab at their school. It’s now fully up and running with students working hands-on on projects related to science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths as part of their regular school week.
System-wide bullying prevention framework
Our SKOA care team (Zorgteam) attended a bullying prevention course in Europe. They came back with more than just new ideas: they’re now building an anti-bullying framework that will be implemented across all our primary schools. Our internal support coordinators (IBers) are attended a similar course to strengthen this effort even further.
De Brede School: opening the school to the community
Two of our schools, Colegio Santa Filomena and Filomena College MAVO, are implementing the “Brede School” concept: the idea that a school is more than just a place for lessons. They run afterschool activities that aren’t only for their own students but open to youngsters from the wider neighbourhood.
Reciprocal exchange: not just sending, but hosting too
Filomena College MAVO sent staff on a job shadowing to Rome. What grew out of that was a genuine two-way partnership: the school hosted a student mobility from their Italian partner, and then sent their own students to Italy. Learning went both ways.
In another case, a group of staff who attended a course, later hosted participants from that same course for a job shadowing visit in Aruba.
Invited Experts
Our numbers at a glance Schools in the consortium
Total mobility participants (2023–2025)
Of which students 71+
School levels covered Primary, secondary (MAVO), special education
Accredited since 2023
Accreditation type KA121 Consortium Coordinator
The SKOA Nationaal Onderwijs Congres is an annual event dedicated to strengthening the professionalism of our teachers. Thanks to the opportunities created within the Erasmus+ project, SKOA is able to invite experts from abroad to contribute to the program. This allows us to offer a rich and diverse lineup of speakers who bring international perspectives and innovative practices, further enhancing the learning experience and impact of the congress for our entire teaching community. Get in touch
Email: info.erasmusplus@skoa.aw
Address: SKOA - Stichting Katholiek Onderwijs Aruba Aruba, Copernicusstraat 11, Oranjestad, Aruba